


Something Is Different

by thedreamchaser



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Drinking, M/M, NCT Dream Ensemble-centric, Not-Friends to Lovers, Uni AU, are we really surpised, idk man nohyuck are just cute, like they're not friends but not enemies either, only a bit, the other three are fed up with nohyuck being dumb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-10
Updated: 2019-05-10
Packaged: 2020-02-29 10:54:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18776827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedreamchaser/pseuds/thedreamchaser
Summary: Get it together, Donghyuck! You're barely friends with him.





	Something Is Different

Donghyuck, knowing well that he couldn't handle alcohol, took a huge gulp of beer in an attempt to relax. It tasted horrible though and only made him shudder uncomfortably. By the looks of it, his friends didn’t exactly enjoy it either. Donghyuck lived in a dormitory and considered himself quite lucky; he had been put into a room with people he actually got along with. Well, for the most part. Jeno and Renjun, and Yangyang and Jaemin shared the bigger rooms while Donghyuck had the smaller room to himself. It had only been two months since university started and they were already exhausted. They had all been equally scared to start in such a big university, but at least they had each other. And beer. Thank god for Renjun’s older cousin who didn’t mind buying it for them. Lucas would definitely be helpful until they were brave enough to buy it for themselves.  

"Jun-ah," Donghyuck mumbled, already feeling the alcohol take over him, "Have you ever dated?" 

Renjun snapped his head up and looked at him questioningly. "Why?" 

"I just want to know if I'm normal." He whispered, looking incredibly sad about something. 

The eldest considered not answering for the sake of keeping Donghyuck from turning gloomy and not wanting for him to talk about dating in front of a certain someone. Nonetheless, he knew how stubborn Donghyuck was and he sighed. "No, I haven't."  

"What?" He let out in a high-pitched voice, dragging the word out and making Renjun wince. "But Jun-ah, you're so cute and nice." His hand went to his cheek and he lazily patted it until Renjun grabbed his hand and placed it back on his lap.  

"You need some water." He briefly glanced at their friend who hadn’t said anything in a while, before he led Donghyuck into the kitchen and made sure he drank a full cup of water.  

Jeno was watching from his seat with a small frown on his face. He felt slightly, scratch that, extremely envious and, deep down, he knew exactly why. But was he going to do anything but the usual brooding? Of course not.  

When Donghyuck returned, he sprawled himself on the couch, with his legs sitting on Jaemin, who was asleep, and his head on Jeno's right leg. 

"Your leg is comfy, good job." He slowly reached up and touched Jeno’s face, before retracting his hand.  

Jeno wondered if he knew what the hell he was doing because sober Donghyuck would have never done that. Donghyuck may have usually been a touchy person but that was never with Jeno. He suddenly shook his head as he realized he _wasn't_ special and that he had done the same thing to Renjun minutes ago. Jeno gently lifted his head from his leg and placed a pillow underneath it instead.  

"I just want to be loved," the drunk boy sighed softly, definitely unaware of what he was saying.  

Jeno faltered at his words and felt a pull at his heart.  

From what he had seen, Donghyuck was one to roll his eyes and fake gag at those cheesy couples that couldn't keep their hands off of each other. But maybe, deep down, he just wanted the same thing.  

Jeno knew how that felt.  

"Me too." He mumbled and laid down on the floor next to Yangyang. It may have been Yangyang’s snoring or Donghyuck’s confession, but he couldn't sleep at all.  

 

Donghyuck snapped his eyes open to see that Yangyang, Jeno and Renjun were cleaning away the takeaway containers and bottles that were scattered around. 

He looked down at his legs that were no longer on top of Jaemin's lap. The younger had somehow positioned himself so that his head was on Donghyuck’s knees and he had his arms wrapped around his legs while he slept. 

Yangyang tip-toed up to him and mouthed to him that he was going to tickle him, which brought an evil smirk over both of their faces. He carefully sat up, ready to see his reaction. This was how he and the youngest bonded in the first place, by annoying the others, especially Jaemin. Yangyang's fingers quickly poked into Jaemin's sides, to which he let out a high squeal and shot up from his sleeping position.  

"Why?" He whined in a sleepy voice, rubbing his eyes.  

Donghyuck just laughed and went to the kitchen to fill his hungry stomach. He stopped when he saw a plate of food sitting on the bench. Not just any food, the food that Donghyuck had specially ordered for himself and made everyone promise not to eat.  

"Thanks to whoever put out this food!" Donghyuck called out to no-one in particular. 

"It wasn't me." Renjun, Yangyang and Jaemin said at the same time.  

"We know it wasn't you, idiot. You just woke up." Yangyang rolled his eyes as Jaemin smacked him, resulting in the start of an exchange of light smacks that soon turned into shoves.  

Donghyuck laughed to himself; those two were always bickering.  

Renjun appeared by his side, shaking his head at his friends before giving him a sly smile. "I guess we know who it was then." 

The two of them watched as Jeno entered the room and began cleaning up again, oblivious that they were talking about him.  

"Jeno-yah, how can you serve food for Donghyuck and not for me?" Jaemin stood with his arms crossed. “And I make food for you all the time! The disrespect! The audacity!”  

He looked like a deer caught in headlights as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Ah sorry, I thought you would be sleeping until the afternoon." 

Jaemin noticed the blush on his cheeks and smirked lightly. He waved his hand in the air, telling him not to worry about it, before turning around and sending Renjun a look that Donghyuck couldn’t decipher.  

A small smile formed on Donghyuck’s face and he felt weirdly warm inside at the thought of Jeno secretly taking care of him. Okay, so Jeno was a  _good_ person. He could probably try harder to get along with him.  

He quickly shook the thought out of his head at the sight of Renjun’s way too neat hair. "Where did you guys sleep?"  

“Well, you losers took up so much space that I went back to my bed. Meanwhile, he passed out on the floor." Renjun chuckled at the memory of Yangyang who had fallen asleep before he got a chance to drink. 

"On the floor? What the hell..." Donghyuck shook his head at the boy.  

He just shrugged, not bothering to fix his hair which was sticking up in all directions. "Yeah, but when I woke up, I had a blanket and pillow."  

A memory suddenly popped into his mind; he'd briefly opened his eyes last night and saw Jeno roll Yangyang onto a blanket and place a pillow under his head. Well, Yangyang was the youngest and therefore, the baby of them even if they were only months apart. Donghyuck wasn’t surprised if any of them went the extra mile to help him be a bit more comfortable.  

"Wait, me too! It was magical." Donghyuck wondered if Jeno did the same thing for him since he couldn't remember anything past his first drink.  

No-one owned up to it but Jeno had a tiny, almost undetectable smile on his face. Undetectable to Donghyuck, that was. The other three glanced at each other and rolled their eyes simultaneously.  

 

Exams had come around and everyone was even more tired than before. They would often fall asleep at their desks or on the couch like Jeno had done now. Donghyuck smiled at his cute, soft snores and placed a blanket on top of him, which he immediately snuggled into.  

He felt as if his heart might explode and turned away from him.  

 _Get it together,_ _Donghyuck_ _! You're barely friends with him._  

Still, he couldn't help himself and glanced back at the boy who looked unbelievably cute. When he heard footsteps behind him, he turned away again.  

"I won't tell," Renjun whispered lowly with a small smile on his face. "But you should do something about it. You won't regret it." 

Those four words echoed in Donghyuck's head for weeks.  

 _You won't regret it._  

What did that mean? Did Jeno say something? Did Renjun know something? 

 

Thankfully, Donghyuck and Jeno had become better friends and he seemed a lot warmer towards him. It only made Donghyuck's feelings stronger and he knew he had to do something. At one point, he decided that 'what was out sight was out of mind' so he tried to avoid him and see if it made a difference. Of course, it didn't work and he felt as though he craved Jeno's company even more. During the semester break, the two of them often stayed home while the others went out to watch new movies and go to every cafe in the surrounding area. They were finally... friends. Though they weren't as close as they were with the others, they seemed to get along differently. And Donghyuck realised it wasn't a bad thing at all. 

"Jeno, can I ask you something?" 

"Doesn't matter if I say yes or no, you will anyway." He jokingly rolled his eyes at him.  

Donghyuck ignored the comment and let out a small breath of nervousness. "How do you know if you really like someone?" 

Jeno stared at him blankly.  

"You know.. if you're... in love?" 

He scratched his head awkwardly, shifting his eyes to the floor. "Maybe you should ask Jaemin, I'm sure he's better at explaining this kind of-" 

"He's busy right now." Donghyuck cut him off.  

Jeno was almost not going to answer but he re-thought it because the younger boys’ eyes were expecting, almost pleading.  

"I guess you decide you want to be more than friends with them. You think about them a lot. It's like they become the person that matters... in a different way to your friends." Jeno ended with a small blush on his cheeks.  

Check, check and check. 

"You want to be around them 24/7?" 

Jeno nodded lightly, not looking at him.  

Donghyuck sighed, slowly walking closer to him but stopping about a meter in front him. "So I was right." 

This was scary; what if he was wrong and he ruined the friendship he had with him? They would still have to live together and he wouldn't be able to handle seeing him every day. Still, he had to take the chance or he would regret it every waking second of his life. 

"About what?" The older boy tilted his head to the side, looking slightly concerned. That just made Donghyuck like him even more. 

Donghyuck noticed that when he stood in front of him, his eyes lined up perfectly with his lips. It was dangerous and he couldn't help himself. He carefully placed a hand on each side of his face, cupping his cheeks gently, stood on his tip-toes and leaned in. 

Jeno felt the softest press on his lips. The boy suddenly felt light-headed at the contact; everywhere he'd touched him was tingling. 

Donghyuck pulled away and waited for a reaction, noticing he had a wide mouth and eyes, as well as reddened cheeks.  

The butterflies in Jeno’s stomach were wreaking havoc and he didn't know what to do. He looked behind Donghyuck to see his friends standing there, mouths hanging open. A split second later, Yangyang and Jaemin were rioting and Renjun was smiling smugly.  

"Finally." He looked relieved at not having to play cupid anymore. 

Jeno ignored his friends and looked back at Donghyuck, who was looking down at the floor and trying to hide the huge smile on his face but failing. He felt himself soften at how cute and happy he was.  

Donghyuck gently took his head and interlaced his fingers with his. "It's not just a crush."  

The slightly older boy leaned in for another kiss but stopped when he realised their three friends had gathered around them,  _even_ closer than before. He wrapped his arms around Donghyuck instead, sighing as Jaemin cooed very audibly. "You know this will change things? We'll have to put up with... them." 

"It's okay. Different is good." 

If anyone had told Donghyuck that he would end up with Jeno as his boyfriend, he would have laughed in their face, but it really didn't seem like such a bad idea now. Jeno, who was barely his friend three weeks ago, was now his boyfriend. He felt his face burn at the thought and nestled into the crook of the taller's neck. Jeno laughed and held on tighter, ignoring the way Yangyang and Renjun were mockingly copying their position and Jaemin began singing one of those cheesy songs at the end of a drama. Different was good. 

**Author's Note:**

> so here's this, i hope you liked my first nct au :)
> 
> i'll find some pics later lol 
> 
> nohyuck enthusiasts, how was it?


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